Four Ways to Die - why the Tank Meta feels "off".

[Ralvenom]

[snip]

Thus the risk vs reward gameplay.

In other words, RNG can screw you over, and there's not a thing you could do about it. No thanks!

I'm scratching my head, trying to figure out how Active Mitigation bled into this discussion. [...] Technically, any situation where you need to push a button to survive is Active Mitigation

Tanks are not ignoring their active mitigation in the meta
[...] shadowskin, shadow wall, rampart, sentinel, hallowed ground, living dead, vengeance...

I don't think you understand what Active Mitigation is at all...Active Mitigation
You literally do certain abilities all the time to stay alive -- as part of your rotation. It would basically be similar to the same thing we do now as tanks, except we would be dead if we messed up slightly. The current meta is using CDs to deal with tankbusters, not consistent use of abilities to prevent dying to autoattacks. Active Mitigation =/= use of CDs to survive tankbusters.